Innholdsfortegnelse for 13-Jan-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

OUR BOXING DAY shoot was hugely enjoyable if a little disappointing in terms of pheasants on the ground. I imagine quite a few small shoots had issues holding birds this season due to unseasonably warm weather and plenty of wild food available. On the other hand, we found plenty of birds on a different part of the shoot. I guess pheasant behaviour is one of shooting’s perpetual challenges. Lack of quarry was made up for by a dry day — a break in the seemingly endless rain over Christmas. We ended up with five squirrels, two woodies and a great woodcock in the bag, and then a lunch of delicious venison stew in the barn was washed down with local bitter. It was almost dark when we popped our heads…

Butterflies in decline, says charity research More than three-quarters of the UK’s butterfly population has declined in the past four decades, according to the charity Butterfly Conservation. In a report, State of the UK’s Butterflies 2015, published last month, the charity said that 76 per cent of resident and migrant butterflies have suffered “major slumps”. Holyrood considers relaxing docking ban Holyrood last month announced that it was considering relaxing the ban on the docking of working dogs’ tails. A consultation was revealed following a study by the University of Glasgow, which suggested that docking the tails of working dog puppies could reduce their risk of injury by the time they are adults. Olympic clayshooter awarded MBE Veteran clayshooter Joe Neville was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list.…

Who are you and what do you do? I am the south-east deer liaison officer for the Deer Initiative and a former professional stalker and wildlife management lecturer. I am also the deer best practice project officer and chair of the Deer Management Qualifications Ltd (DMQ) Quality Assurance Group. What does a typical week involve for you? Discussions and visits with landowners, estate managers, deer management groups, stalkers, gamekeepers and rangers. It also involves editing best practice guidance and doing best practice training. I might be doing night-time census work or daytime impact assessment surveys. Plus, there are endless deer-related phone calls. What would you say is the greatest deer-related issue in shooting and conservation? Deer numbers are not high everywhere, but when they are allowed to reach very high…

“We are a sporting and rural community bound by a common love for this way of life and often dependent on each other” Alasdair Mitchell’s account of his “pub conversation” about the media and campaigning brought back many memories (Sharpshooter, 30 December). It also made me wince a bit. In the first instance, it is a mistake to talk about the hunting and shooting communities as if they are two different races. There is huge crossover, with many families (including my own) involved in both activities and many others besides. We are a sporting and rural community bound by a common love for this way of life and often dependent on one another. Every £1 spent on the defence and promotion of hunting is one that shooting need not spend.…

Headkeeper Dave Kellett (below) has been working on the shoot for just less than nine years. In that time he has worked closely with Richard Barnes from Kings Crops (www.kingscrops.co.uk) to develop bespoke covercrops. Dave admits he is something of a fanatic where covercrops are concerned, and he uses a unique blend of kale, linseed, chicory, millet and some areas of canary grass. When he started there were just 15 acres planted, but over the past nine years that has increased to 60. Next season he is planning to increase that by a further 10 acres. With the two rivers and the main road bordering the shoot, Dave believes that it is important to create the best possible habitat for his pheasants. That way he manages to hold them well;…

“I estimate that the 1968 Firearms Act has been amended on average once every 14 months. Simplification is long overdue” From the firearms point of view, 2015 was a busy year. The report of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary into firearms licensing was released in September. To nobody’s surprise, it revealed serious shortcomings in the way the police manage the licensing process (Saints and sinners, 18 November 2015). Its publication coincided with a symposium held by the Law Commission as part of its consultation process prior to issuing recommendations on updating firearms law. The symposium was well attended by the shooting organisations, police, lawyers and other interested parties. The Commission listened carefully to what was said and its report, published in December, has generally been welcomed by the shooting organisations.…

“It was so dark on the third drive that you could see the flame from the barrels” Punctuality. It’s a subject that has nothing directly to do with gundogs, but it’s one that affects all of us who work our dogs on shoots. I am, by nature, a punctual person. If you tell me to be somewhere at a certain time, I’ll do my best to arrive then. So when a shoot asks me to come at 8:45am for a 9am start, you can be confident that I will be there. However, recent experience has left me wondering whether the Guns receive the same instructions as us beaters and pickers-up. On a shooting day just before Christmas, I arrived exactly on time. Forty minutes later I was wondering why I’d…

Both hoar frost and rime comprise soft, white ice crystals and can give the appearance of an ornate white winter wonderland, but both are formed in different ways. Hoar frost forms on clear, still nights in winter when water vapour freezes directly on to a surface such as a blade of grass or a fence post. According to the Met Office, “the ‘feathery’ variety of hoar frost forms when the surface temperature reaches freezing point before dew begins to form on it”. Sometimes this frost is so thick it looks like snow. By comparison, rime is essentially frozen water vapour in a cloud or fog. It resembles a rough white ice deposit and forms on vertical surfaces exposed to the wind. The Met Office says it is created when “super-cooled…

“My wife succeeded to do in 20 minutes what Hugh and I had failed to do in about 120 hours” One of my earliest adventures fishing with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall involved a salmon expedition to Scotland to fish the river Findhorn. As with most salmon trips, this was the usual mix of achingly beautiful scenery, 10 different types of “wrong” weather and day upon day of fairly pointless thrashing. Hugh and I were up ridiculously early, fishing all day until a lack of daylight and the plague of midges sent us scurrying back to the lodge for dinner. The break from this tradition of pointless thrashing, punctuated by moments of unfeasible optimism about how it would all be different tomorrow, came in the form of that other old chestnut of salmon…

EAT Chances are that you still have some pheasants in the freezer after Christmas. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to put the meat to good use, from pheasant ballotine with Sussex truffles (visit http://po.st/ballotine for the recipe) to pheasant with bacon and creamed Savoy cabbage (visit http://po.st/baconsavoy). READ The One That Got Away (Merlin Unwin Books, RRP £20). Published last year, this anecdotal collection features contributions from writers and angling enthusiasts, including Max Hastings, Jeremy Paxman and Laurence Catlow. Each recalls personal tales of fishing failure, from incredible fish hooked and lost to half-glimpsed whoppers that just refused to bite. WATCH Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feaston Friday, 15 January (Channel 4, 8pm). Game is on the menu in this latest episode of the cookery…

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) will launch its 2016 Big Farmland Bird Count next month, and is urging people to take part. The third of what is now an annual event will take place between Saturday, 6 and Sunday, 14 February. The GWCT’s Jim Egan explained its aim: “Once again we are asking farmers, landowners, birdwatchers and gamekeepers to spend 30 minutes recording the species and number of birds seen on one particular area of the farm this coming winter.” Nearly 1,000 farmers took part in the 2015 study, counting birds across almost a million farmed acres. The results revealed the benefits of the work that many farmers undertake to protect birds, with 127 different species spotted, including some of conservation concern, such as starlings, lapwings and tree…

Matthew Armett (right), 12, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, raised £800 for a toddler with the brain disorder pachygyria, in a sponsored clay shoot at Cockett Farm Shooting Ground last month. Ministers have agreed to hold a summit to consider the future of Britain’s declining hedgehog population. The decision follows concerns voiced by Oliver Colvile, Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, last year. Fewer than 25 per cent of farmers have received their 2015 BPS (basic payment scheme) payments, according to the results of a survey by the National Farmers’ Union, which were published last month. Animal rights group Animal Aid recently launched an online petition calling on Natural Resources Wales not to expand the leasing of public land to shooting tenants. BASC’s director for Wales, Gary Ashton, has raised concerns…

HELP IS AT HAND FOR GAMEKEEPERS, TOO I was pleased to see reference to concerns over mental health issues in Shooting Times(9 December) and commend the bravery of Laurence Catlow in his frank and disarming narrative about depression. When depression is diagnosed, guns are seen as a risk to the patient’s life and possibly others. Avoidance of risk is considered of paramount importance and there are certainly instances where action is required. However, this is a blanket approach that does not take into account those who are highly trained in a profession, such as gamekeepers and stalkers. It is important to emphasise that depression is suffered by many people — an estimated one in four — and there is a wide spectrum of diagnosis. Through the Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust helpline…

“One activity involves placing bets on who can return with the most deer ears. It doesn’t matter how the deer dies” Thirty-odd years ago, poachers were still poaching game for their own pot, or flogging it at the backdoors of country pubs and hotels, where it would get converted into tasty game, or more accurately, poacher’s pies. There was still an element of “old country romanticism” involved. The culprits were roguish but affable characters, or at least the ones that I knew were. They’d go ferreting, pigeon shooting and beating on local shoots, before heading out at night to steal the keeper’s pheasants. Sure, they were a pain in the backside, tempers would flare, but at least someone ate the delicious fresh meat from their illicit activities. I remember a…

“There’s no pressure to deliver a bag, but beaters’ day presents its own challenges” Jamie Osborne keepers on a 2,000-acre Bedfordshire pheasant shoot with a mix of family and syndicate days. His passion is wild grey partridge conservation Some believe that January is a month when a keeper’s foot begins to lift off the throttle. Not a bit of it. For my part, I like the shooting season to go out with a roar. I try to push things that little bit harder this month, fit in an extra day or two, and end on a high. But before that, there is the beaters’ day to organise. I enjoy beaters’ day. It gives me the chance to extend sincere thanks to everyone who has been involved on the shoot. I…

Guy N. Smith is an author, writer, keen wildfowler and avid collector of cartridges, the more unusual the better The 1930s was the era of the casual Shot, whose main objective was to supplement his family’s food bill with rabbits and pigeon from a local farm where he had permission to shoot. Widespread unemployment and low wages demanded cheap cartridges, and often proprietary brands were beyond his limited budget. In 1929, Trent Guns & Cartridges of Grimsby, Lincolnshire, recognised a lucrative niche in the market and founded its business at Fraser Street. Following early success, it relocated to larger premises in Welholme Street, where it installed its own shot tower. This provided additional revenue for the firm’s increasing trade and, as well as being able to load its own cartridges…

“In the natural world, stoats and weasels hunt alone, which gives the rabbit a chance to get to a safe spot and sit it out, run around or bolt” HOW MANY FERRETS SHOULD YOU USE? When I was growing up, I hadn’t realised I was working too few ferrets in some of the deep warrens I was ferreting on. As I sat on my ferret box, drinking tea, I wondered why few rabbits were showing themselves compared with what I saw run in. Nowadays, when I look at a warren I decide how many ferrets I think it will take to force the rabbits to bolt, rather than merely alerting the warren to the presence of a predator. In the natural world, stoats and weasels hunt alone; this gives the…

This can be a tough month of the year for barn owls. Snow provides a snug, warm blanket under which small mammals can operate with impunity and cold weather increases the need for food. A weak and desperate barn owl may meet an untimely end in a variety of ways. Many owls are hit by cars, presumably attracted to the roads by the possibility of finding carrion or because verges are the first pieces of ground from which the snow melts. The last thing they see is the dazzling lights of an approaching vehicle. Other barn owls are found on train lines or floating in steep-sided cattle drinking troughs. Lots of barn owls are ringed each year, so it is worth checking any corpses that you come across. You can…

“Proper, sustainable, fair-chase hunting selects a specific animal past its breeding best” What do you think of trophy hunting? In the aftermath of the Cecil the lion debacle, the antis are in full cry for anybody they can portray as a trophy hunter. You know the sort of thing — an overweight Yank shooting a hapless, baited critter from a Toyota then high-fiving when the tape measure shows a gratifying SCI score. Who would want to admit to being a trophy hunter today? Let’s just say it’s a conversation stopper at the average cocktail party. Yet there is another side to every story. In the case of trophy hunting, this other side is called the truth. I am not talking about the reprehensible commercial activity known as “canned hunting”. I…

16 JAN UARY BASC YOUNG SHOTS ROUGH DAY Glenample estate, Lochearnhead, Perthshire Tel 01350 723226 2 1-2 3 JAN UARY ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL CHAMPIONSHIP Stowell Park estate, Northleach, Gloucestershire Tel 01216 089523 2 3 JAN UARY ALL-DAY TASTE OF GAME EVENT The Oak/Y Dderwen pub, Glyn Ceiriog, Clwyd Tel 01691 718810 2 FEB RUARY FORESTRY COMMISSION PIE AND PINT EVENT Woodlands Enterprise Centre, Flimwell, East Sussex Tel 03000 674422 3 FEB RUARY GWCT SNARING AND CORVID CAGE TRAPPING COURSE Wynnstay Farm, Wrexham Tel 01425 651013 1 2-14 FEB RUARY THE BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire Tel 01258 857700…

It is good to see Shooting Timesgetting the exposure it deserves, even if the majority of viewers probably did not even notice. On Christmas Day, my family and I watched HM the Queen’s Speech and, from about a minute in, all I could do was smile. On Her Majesty’s writing desk were three pictures of her family, and the one on the far right was used as a Shooting Timescover on 24 January 2008. It was taken by staff photographer Paul Quagliana during the Cocker Spaniel Championship at Sandringham. Next year, let’s hope the Queen chooses it again, but with the Shooting Timesname on it this time! M. Mitchell, Dorset HÄRKILA FENNEK ROLL COLLAR Made from the high-tech Polartec® Windpro® fabric, this collar is designed to insulate your neck and…

“Vermin control is taken seriously — around 60 or 70 foxes are shot each year” That fondly remembered comedian Spike Milligan once said, “If you don’t plan anything …it can’t go wrong!” Trying to organise a shoot day following a major flood where, until just two days earlier, most of the pegs were under 10ft of water was no mean feat. Headkeeper Dave Kellett is quite used to dealing with the northeast’s variable weather conditions, but some days can really prove more difficult than others. The Winderwath settled estate shoot sits just north of Penrith in Cumbria and is bounded by two rivers, the Eden and the Eamont, with the A66 running through the middle of the shoot and a major holiday camp sitting on one corner. The shoot extends…

Few birds will have had as many shots fired at them with so little return than the common snipe. The zig-zag flight, coupled with a wicked turn of speed on takeoff, means the snipe has the advantage over most of those who pursue it. It is also, for those who are fortunate enough to hit one or two, absolutely delicious, and should never be frowned upon as too much work for too little gain for the table. Though I could write a short book on the subject — and a number of people already have — that is enough about the bird as a sporting adversary. Along with all the other wading birds, its arrival in the dale is greeted with a glad heart. Spring is, after all, cause for…

SOME YEARS AGO an Irish water spaniel (IWS) enthusiast described the breed to me as the joker in the gundog pack. He had a point. The IWS is not only a rarity, but also an oddity. Despite its name, it’s not really a spaniel. This is why the Kennel Club classifies it as a retriever for gundog competitions, but as a spaniel in the show ring. Being forced to compete in trials with Labradors, flatcoats and golden retrievers makes it difficult for an IWS to gain even a modest field trial award, let alone become a field trial champion. It’s not because the IWS lacks trainability or talent in the shooting field, but because it’s different in the way that it works compared with the more conventional retrievers. Another IWS…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS Shooting Timesrifle reviewer and stalker DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL Shropshire gamekeeper and keen wildfowler GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author PAUL RAWLINGS Gundog expert and A-panel spaniel judge CHRIS DE CANI Riverkeeper, with specialist knowledge of chalkstreams TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TONY JACKSON A game Shot, keen stalker and former editor of Shooting Times TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior CIC international trophy judge Contact the team Email: stanswers@timeinc.com By post: Shooting Times, Blue Fin Building,…

There’s no more impressive breed of cattle than the English longhorn. It is enjoying a small resurgence in popularity, thanks to the fact that increasing numbers of consumers are prepared to pay a premium for rare-breed beef. Ten years ago, the longhorn was finally removed from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust’s register of rare breeds, as numbers were regarded as self-sustaining. Longhorns are large cows, historically bred as draught animals for which they were well suited, due to their great power and placid temperaments. They were also valued for the high butterfat content of their milk, which made it ideal for turning into butter and cheese. Today they are valued for their longevity, ease of calving and their marbled beef. Longhorns are white cattle with reddish-brown or grey roan markings,…